Hatchet Attack Victim Gets Surprise Visit in Hospital

ESCONDIDO - A 30-year-old man who survived a horrible hatchet attack got a surprise visit while recovering at the hospital.  A NFL lineman decided to stop by and see the man.

Hatchet victim Chris Anguiano received a visit from Tennessee Titan center and Rancho Bernardo High alum Eugene Amano at the Palomar Medical Center.

Amano is use to rigorous challenges on football Sundays but can only imagine the challenges Anguiano goes through daily.

Back in July of last year, police say Anguiano was asleep in an Escondido home with his girlfriend when an off-duty border patrol agent came in, swinging a hatchet and striking Anguiano in the face.

Chris Anguino said,  "I'm not giving up.  I'm putting up a fight till the end."

Prosecutors believe this was a case of mistaken identity. It's believed Gamalier Rivera came to the home looking for his estranged wife and her boyfriend with the intention of killing them. Instead, prosecutors say the border patrol agent mistakenly attacked Anguiano and his girlfriend with a hatchet. Anguiano would end up in a coma, and wake up legally blind.

Amano heard the story through his mother who works at Palomar Medical Center.  "I wanted to come in and lend my support, and let him know, 'just stay positive.'  He's going to get through it."

Wife's TRO

In April of 2005, the wife of a U.S. border patrol employee charged in a brutal hatchet attack was granted a temporary restraining order against her husband.

In it, Erika Von Der Heyde Teran states that she and her husband, Gamalier Rivera, fought over having relatives stay at the house during a visit.  After the fight, Erika discovered a list written by her husband in which he detailed how he planned to murder her and dispose of the body:

"It listed the steps about what he needed to buy.  Gloves, Plastic, Trash Bag, Weights.  That he needed to find a dark place with no cars, and then described how he would put the body in the bag, weigh it down and destroy the evidence."

Read the full TRO in the above link.

Wrong Target

Investigators were called to the bloody crime scene just after 1 a.m. on a July morning in 2009.   U.S. Border Patrol employee Gamalier Rivera was accused of trying to hack a couple to death in their own home.

Investigators say Rivera entered the couple's bedroom and struck the 29-year-old man in the neck and back leaving him with life threatening wounds.  The man's girlfriend's legs were cut but she only had minor injuries.

Neighbors just across the street say they didn't hear anything that morning, but are still in shock.

"That's horrible, that's unbelievable. I don't know what is going on in this world," said Norma Lopez.

Investigators weren't sure how Rivera got into the house.

"Whether their door was left open, or a window was left open, or the house was left unsecured at this point we haven't found any forced entry into the home," said Escondido Police Lieutenant Bob Benton.

Rivera was later found just blocks away by a pay phone at a 7/Eleven. His clothes were bloody and blood was dripping on the ground.

"He didn't run, he didn't fight," Benton told San Diego 6 at the time.